TICON – The Capital Increase Is Put on a Silver Platter for Thai Bev’s Billionaire
The capital increase and name changing of TICON may be a piece of pawn on someone's board game.
Questions had been raised whether there was an internal significant development in the company as soon as TICON Industrial Connection Public Company Limited (TICON) announced a ฿1.1 billion capital increase and the changing of company’s name to Frasers Property (Thailand) Public Company Limited (FPT).
After taking a look at major shareholders of TICON, it appears that FPT, a company under Mr. Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi’s group, holds 40.95% stake, following by Rojana Industrial Park Public Company Limited (ROJNA) at 26.10%and DBS Bank LTD at 2.70%
However, 40.95% may not satisfy the need of Mr. Charoen. Which is followed by a capital increase from TICON to a public offering, rights offering, and private placement. Meaning, Mr. Charoen will be able to hold more than 50% stake in TICON! Simply put, absolute power in TICON.
This capital increase can be seen as a move from Mr. Charoen to take control of TICON as he always holds more than 50% on whatever business he invested in.
A clear objective after taking TICON is to advance in the investment of 4,300 rai estate that TRA Land Development, a joint venture between TICON (50%), ROJNA (25%) and Asia Industrial Estate, had won the bidding from AQ Estate Public Company Limited (AQ) at the price of ฿8.9 billion with rumors of the price being very cheap.
The land is considered a very good location as it is close to Suvarnabhumi Airport while one side of the land is connected to Bangna-Trad Road, and the other side is connected to Motorway. TICON had planned to develop this land into a large-scale project of mix-use industrial, included industrial estate, industrial factories, warehouses, and logistic centers.
As for the name changing, the story traced back to six years ago when Mr. Charoen takeover Fraser and Neave Limited (F&N) at the price of ฿300 billion. The company is Singapore’s leading in F&B, real estate, and logistics businesses.
The name aligns with TICON’s strategy to develop AQ’s land into major warehouses and logistic centers.
Although It is still not 100% sure that the scheme will turn out as mentioned, it is easy to guess that the name changing is a piece of a jigsaw for Mr. Charoen to further F&N business.
The move that Mr. Charoen made was at a level of killing a group of bird with a single bullet.